St. Edward could play Friday's football home game against Immaculate Conception on the artificial turf at Elmhurst's Plunkett Park because of damage done to the natural turf at Greg True Field in Elgin.

"The company we have for maintaining our field mistakenly put down a weed killer instead of a fertilizer and a portion of the grass on the field is dead," athletic director P.J. White said.

On Thursday, a decision is expected to be made on relocating the game after players have a chance to test the field by practicing on it.

"The safety of our athletes will be the No. 1 thing we consider when we determine whether this game or any others are moved," White said. "Right now the field is in no worse condition than many fields are later on in the season.

"It doesn't look great but there is grass there. We're certainly not going to win any grass beauty pageants or anything."

About two-thirds of the field from end zone to end zone is affected, most of it on the home team's side of the field.

The damage was done prior to the Sept. 4 home game against Clark, and that game was played on it without issues.

"It was an honest mistake made in the mixing of chemicals for the field and they feel terrible about it," White said. "Someone grabbed the wrong bottle when they were mixing chemicals.

"They've been putting top dressing on the field and have been doing what they can to try to get some type of growth."

White said the damage caused St. Edward to look for alternatives immediately in case the remainder of the home schedule would be affected. St. Edward has three home games remaining after this week, including Sept. 25 with Guerin, Oct. 2 with Walther Christian and Oct. 23 with Elmwood Park.

"Immaculate Conception was real helpful, and one thing about this is you find out there are people out there who care and want to help," White said. "Geneva's athletic director, Jim Kafer (former St. Edward athletic director) volunteered use of his field when it's available and we've had some other schools like West Chicago who are willing to help.

"Right now, though, nothing has been decided."

White tried to find a positive side of the situation.

"If there's any kind of blessing or anything like that, it's that we have needed resurfacing of the playing field for a time," White said. "After this season would be an ideal time to look at that."